Six wild elephants drowned by slipping into a waterfall in Thailand and two others managed to save themselves by being stranded trying to rescue one of those who fell into the stream, according to authorities.
Khao Yai national park officials heard elephants "asking for help" at three in the morning, according to the National Parks, Wildlife and Plant Conservation Department of Thailand in a statement. Hours later they found six bodies at the bottom of the Haew Narok waterfall ('The Abyss of Hell').
Apparently, two other pachyderms would have tried to save one of those who fell and got caught in a slippery piece of rock over the rough waters. The video showed another of the huge animals fighting desperately to return to where their partner was.
Park officials threw food mixed with nutritional supplements in an attempt to increase their energy and give them the strength to climb back into the forest. They later said that the two had been rescued, but that they were extremely distressed.
The spokesman for the parks department, Sompoch Maneerat, said it was not clear what caused the accident. "No one knows for sure the true cause of why they fell, but there was heavy rain last night," he said.
The waterfall remained closed to tourists during the rescue.
Elephants are the national animal of Thailand, but their number has been reduced to only a few thousand.
Deforestation has pushed the wild population into closer contact with humans in recent decades, far from their natural habitats.
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